Itís been my personal opinion for years that L.J. Smithís work
is important, a great contribution to the world of literature. This though,
is the first attempt I have made to explain WHY I believe this. Therefore,
bear with me if I stumble a bit along the way.

First of all, in order for you to understand this I need to take you
back to my first experience with L.J. Smithís work. It was either my last
year of junior high or my first year of high school. I was at the bookstore
and saw a copy of the first Secret Circle book. It sounded interesting, but I wasnít quite sure about it so I didnít
buy it. I saw it later at a used book store, decided I could spare a couple
dollars, and bought it. I loved it. The characters were interesting,
the soulmate theory was neat since Iíd heard of it but had never read
a book before that utilized it. And my favorite thing? It had backround.
One of the worst things I think an author can do is to give the reader
an unusual character or setting and expect them to buy it without any sort
of explanations. Suffice it to say I was happy with the book and bought
the other two. I wasnít exactly a full on L.J. Smith fan yet though.
At this time, when it came to books, I was heavily into Christopher Pike.
I loved his willingness to be different (still do) and devoured books such
as the Remember Me and Last Vampire series. I was actually looking for a Christopher Pike book when I stumbled
upon the book that really turned me into an L.J. Smith fan, Dark Visions. I remember that I was getting frustrated because there werenít any Christopher
Pike books that looked interesting that I didnít already have. Then
I spotted Dark Visions, the collectors edition. The title was intriguing so I read the back.
Psychics huh? I thought. Sounded like it could be good. I donít
think I even realized until later that it was by L.J. Smith. I
bought it. I read it pretty much straight through, stopping only when I
absolutely had to, and finished it in two days (maybe a little less.) NOW
I was an L.J. Smith fan. For one, she didnít give her characters unlimited
power. In fact, by themselves each power wasnít incredibly impressive.
When you put it all together though. . . Gabriel had my heart almost immediately.
I kept thinking ďCome on Gabriel, itís all right. Just let
down your defenses for one moment. Trust.Ē If I could have, Iíd have
jumped right into the book. After that it was on to The Forbidden Game, the Night World series, and The Vampire Diaries. By now Iíve read all of them (except Heart of Valor which seems impossible to get) at least six or seven times. Iím still amazed. The number one thing that I believe L.J. Smith does in her books
that a lot of authors donít is the one I mentioned above, backround. If
an author gives me an unusual character, such as a witch, vampire, shapeshifter,
psychic, then I feel a certain explanation is nessesary. If theyíve plopped
the characters down in a different world (like L.J. did in The Forbidden Game trilogy) then it should be taken for granted that the world and itís rules should
be described. Fantasy is great but a lot of authors forget that the reader
doesnít automatically know whatís going on or what to relate it to. L.J.
Smith doesnít do this, and I greatly admire her for it.

The next thing that makes me love L.J. Smithís work is her creativity,
her willingness to be different. Vampires and witches have been
used in literature before of course, but L.J. Smith puts a new spin on it.
With the Night World suddenly youíve got vampires that reproduce so that youíve got born vampires.
Youíve got witches that are like regular people and arenít evil. Youíve
got werewolves but youíve also got other kinds of shapeshifters (like Keller
in Witchlight) In fact, youíve got a whole mythology thatís unique and interesting, from
Maya, the first vampire, to how the witches put all the dragons asleep so that
the shapeshifters no longer ruled. In The Vampire Diaries thereís a bit more sticking with the traditional vampire stories, but once again,
the vampireís arenít evil (not all anyway.) She uses this creativity in
all of her books, and itís refreshing.

One of the most important aspects of a book is itís characters.
If the reader doesnít like the character or canít relate to them, chances
are theyíre probably not even going to bother finishing reading it. You
donít have this problem with L.J. Smith. Each character is interesting
in their own way and while I have seen people comparing characters (such as Damon
and Ash, Gabriel and Julian) it seems to me to be surface comparisons (which
are rather easy to do with any books.) Dig below the surface and the characters
suddenly seem strickingly different. The main reason for this is
probably motive. Iíll use Damon, Ash, Gabriel, and Julian as an example here
since Iíve already written an essay on them and know where Iím going.
Now, all four of these guys have reputations as bad boys. Two of them, Damon
and Ash, have reputations as ladies men. Two of them, Gabriel and Julian,
donít seem to have much romantic experience. Here weíve already got
a split. Now, as to motive for their behavior. Ash is a showoff, wants
other vampires to think heís cool. This is Ashís motive. Next,
Damon. Damon is a little like Ash. He does seem to like being the
center of attention. Damon though, is also competitive. He doesnít
seem to be interested in much until Stefan develops an interest in it. Damons
main motive for things seems to be competition, especially sibling rivalry.
Next, Gabriel. Gabrielís motive is fear, fear of opening up, fear
of being vulnerable. Heís had tragedy in his life and heís afraid to open
up, lest it strike again. Last but not least, Julian. Julian doesnít
strike me as showing off, competing, or being afraid. Julian strikes
me as simply doing what is considered normal where heís from. People seem
to forget that Julian lives in a different world, a world in which his behavior
is perfectly natural so that he probably doesnít think much about it. So,
each of L.J. Smithís characters are different. They also, no matter how
strong, assertive, or charming, all have flaws, flaws that the reader gets to
see. This makes them more real, accessible. It makes the reader relate
to the character, so that they want to see the character overcome obstacles
and reach the end of the book. Character is extremely important, and L.J.
Smith has it covered.

Next, plot.
Did you ever notice that L.J. Smithís books seem to contain three kinds of stories,
all wrapped up together? First, thereís the outer plot. This is
where you have Julian bringing Jenny and her friends into the shadow world or
Cassie joining Dianaís coven. Secondly, thereís a romantic plot. This
is obvious in the Night World books with the soulmates and not that hard to notice with the other books (Cassies
relationship with Adam, Kaitlyns relationship with Gabriel) Thirdly is
character growth. Each character changes in some way, shape, or form in the
book. Whether itís an obvious change such as Julian in The Forbidden Game or Gabriel in Dark Visions, or a less obvious change such as James in Secret Vampire(who seems to learn not to always hold himself in such tight restriction.)
These three stories all work together and give the book a complete feel.
It doesnít feel as if itís ďlacking something.Ē

Last but not least, the way that L.J. Smith approaches the evil vs. good theme
makes me adore these books. She seems to rely more on balance than on
a true good vs. evil. Many of the characters that seem evil at first turn
out to be good at heart and even the good characters arenít perfect and can
have violent thoughts (Kaitlin wants to hit Gabriel over the head with a rolling
pin and splatter blood on the walls, sound nice?) or reactions (James throws
Phil into a dresser.) I wonít get into this too much here since I intend
to write a separate essay on this topic, but I love the balance that seems to go
on in L.J. Smithís work.

Well, thatís about
it. I hope youíve enjoyed learning why I believe L.J. Smith is such a
wonderful author. Maybe itís given you some insights. Maybe youíve
thought of some more reasons. In any case, this is the end of my exploration
into this topic (at least for now.)